'Fat shaming' alien abduction gym ad slammed as 'offensive'
LONDON -- A billboard advert for a gym has been branded "offensive and fat-shaming" by an anti-bullying campaigner.
The advert for Fit4Less gym in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, shows an image of an alien alongside the text: "They're coming… and when they arrive they'll take the FAT ones first!". The advert also features the text: "save yourself!" accompanied by an arrow pointing to the gym's website.
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The poster -- which is mounted on the side of convenience store The Co-Operative on Tamworth Road in Sawley, Derbyshire -- was spotted by Natalie Harvey, founder of Combat Bullying, as she drove down the road with her son in the car.
"Just this week alone I've had three cases of bullying due to weight issues and I feel campaigns like this aid bullying," Harvey told the Derby Telegraph.
"I couldn't believe it when I saw it, it's 2016 – this sort of fat-shaming humour is offensive."
However, the gym has defended the advert, putting it down to "a little harmless fun".
"We don't take ourselves too seriously – I'm a 45 year-old man who is 17.5 stone and proud of it – but I'm healthy with it," Jan Spaticchia, chief executive of Energie Group who owns Fit4Less, told the Derby Telegraph.
"There is such a thing as being overweight and healthy – not everyone has to be skinny," said Spaticchia.
"We also believe however that if we are going to reach more people as a sector then we need to stop taking ourselves so seriously and realise that if we want to attract normal people, then we need to be willing to poke fun at ourselves and our messaging is designed to do exactly that.
Spaticchia said that by taking a "light-hearted approach" they feel they can "connect" with more people.
"We certainly didn't mean to cause offence and we care about the relationships that we build with the communities that we serve," Spaticchia continued.
However, the Co-Operative isn't convinced about the so-called light-heartedness of the ad.
"As soon as the poster on the side of our store in Tamworth Road, Sawley was brought to our attention we requested the agency responsible to remove it," a spokesman for the Co-Op told Mashable.
Mr Spaticchia told the Derby Telegraph that the advert would not be taken down.
The Energie Group and Combat Bullying did not immediately respond to Mashable's requests for comment.
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Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
